..:::: Anand :::::..

It’s bit old tip. But if you still run Exchange Server 2003, you can use this to tweak your security settings very easily. By default the security tab is disabled for most objects, e.g., Organization.  The following steps to add a registry entry to enable the security tab for the Exchange System Manager.

1. Run Regedit then navigate to the HKCU (not the HKLM): HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\ExAdmin.
2. Once you reach the above folder in the registry, select New, REG_DWORD called ShowSecurityPage.
3 . Set the value to 1 (one) for the ShowSecurityPage entry.
4: Re-open the Exchange System Manager and notice the new Security tab.

I got this error message ("The directory property cannot be found in the cache")in ADAM when I try to open ADSIEdit.msc.  I try to troubleshoot by restarting the ADAM service and few other things with no success.

I found the this MSKB 958973 and the resolution in this KB resolved my issue. Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958973

After you moved bunch of mailboxes between servers or databases, you may find users can’t logon to their mailboxes. You will see the Event ID 1022 logged in Application Logs.

Event Type:     Error
Event Source:   MSExchangeIS Mailbox Store
Event Category: Logons
Event ID:       1022
Date:           5/6/2009
Time:           10:50:10 AM
User:           N/A
Computer:   ExchangeServer   
Description:
Logon Failure on database "StorageGroup\Database" - Windows 2000 account Domain\username; mailbox /O=orgname/OU=companyname/cn=Recipients/cn=username.
Error: 1144

Solution: Update the Exchange “Recipient Update Service” and trigger the Active Directory replication between domain controllers and sites. OR simply wait for AD Replication and Exchange Recipient Updates to happen automatically on its course.

After you added a physical disk resource to the SQL cluster group, if you don’t see your drive in SQL management studio (console), you should know that you need to add the new physical disk as dependency to the SQL service.

When you get this error message upon adding the disk as dependency, this blog solution is for you.

The error message means you have to make SQL service offline and add the dependency. Follow the steps below to make that happen:

1. Open the Cluster Administrator in Windows Administrative Tools.

2. Locate the group that contains the applicable SQL Server resource that you would like to make dependent.

3. If the resource for the disk is already in this group, go to step 4. Otherwise, locate the group that contains the disk. If that group and the group that contains SQL Server are not owned by the same node, move the group containing the resource for the disk to the node that owns the SQL Server group.

4. Bring the the SQL Server resource offline.

5. Select the SQL Server resource, open the Properties dialog box, and use the Dependencies tab to add the disk to the set of SQL Server dependencies.

Keywords: An Error occurred attempting to add ‘drive’ as dependency of ‘SQL Server’. The operation could not be completed because the cluster resource is online. Error ID: 5019 (0000139b)

On my Windows 2008 (AD) Certificate services console I get this error message when I try to add a Web Server Certificate Request file.

0x80094801 - the request contains no certificate template information

The solution is to import the Certificate Request in command line with CertReq tool.  Use the following command to import your Certificate Request file.

certreq -submit -attrib "CertificateTemplate:WebServer" <Cert Request.req>

If the template is different, find the correct template name in “Certificate Authority” console. If you don’t find it, you may have to add the template before you try importing the request file.

You like the idea of managing list of tasks or check list in Excel and you will like this idea of Conditional Formatting. See the picture below. If you want to know how to do this in 3 simple steps head over HERE.

I use Microsoft Mesh with all of my computers at home and work. I like the great file sharing feature and I share files across the computers.  But the trouble is I get the following error often, says “The Windows Live Network is unavailable from this site for one of the following reasons:”.

The simple solution is in the error message after “You can:”. Do the following,

• Visit one of the Windows Live sites or www.msn.com. Click Sign in and sign in with your passport account. After you sign in, sign out of the site right away.
• Go to http://www.mesh.com. Now you can you sign in to Mesh without issues.

This outlook add-in adds the missing feature in Microsoft outlook which allows you to save and with option to remove all attachments from multiple emails at once. Great tools to manage your mailbox size. Get it HERE.

RichCopy is a free utility that comes to us from Ken Tamaru of Microsoft. The tool was first developed in 2001 and has been updated regularly to keep pace with evolving needs. Trust me when I tell you, this is the answer to all your file copying needs. What you'll find most striking the first time you take RichCopy out for a spin is that it's a multithreaded copying tool. That means that rather than copying one file at a time in serial order, RichCopy can open multiple threads simultaneously, allowing many files to be copied in parallel and cutting the total time required to complete the operation several times over. You can also pause and resume file copy operations, so if you lose network connectivity at any point, you can just pick up where you left off.

Of course, these are really just the simplest features of RichCopy. As Figure 1 shows, you also get a vast array of granular controls that allow you to customize all of those fancy aspects of your file copying that I talked about earlier—filtering files, saving attributes, adjusting cache size, and so on. If you regularly copy lots of files over the network or between various storage devices, these features will significantly ease your daily life.

Download it Here: RichCopy from Microsoft

Here are some scenarios where you want to add multiple NetBIOS names for a Windows Server. Technically Windows machines can have only one NetBIOS names, but Microsoft brought this feature in Windows 2000/2003 servers.

1. You want to recover a Dead file server data from backup on a existing server and continue providing published shares to the users
2. You want to consolidate multiple file servers into one or two servers
3. When you acquire a company, you want to transfer the file server data to your server and share it to your users with same name and same URL. 

Follow the instructions below on the server you want to add multiple NetBIOS names.

If Microsoft Outlook is already installed in Citrix server and you want to set Outlook as default viewer for MSG files (saved e-mail from Outlook), read ahead.

As you know (by now), when you click .MSG file on Citrix server, it triggers Outlook to create a new profile. Here is the solution to use Outlook to read the MSG attachment and not trigger profile server ever.

1. Logon to Citrix server as Local and Citrix Administrator.
2. Delete any entries in this registry location:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

3. Create a batch file at C:\Windows and name it “SetupOutlook.bat” with the following contents:
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "00030393" /d 01000000 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "00030397" /d 04000000 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "00030399" /d 00000000 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "0003036f" /d 98c30100 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "001f0418" /d 0000 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "001f0419" /d 0000 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "001f041a" /d 0000 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "00400032" /d 204c78f5ba39c901 /f
   REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046" /t REG_BINARY /v "001f041c" /d 0000 /f
4. Open Regedit.exe and create a new string value (Reg_SZ) as “OutlookProfileSetup” at following location. Enter the value for this key as “C:\Windows\SetupOutlook.bat”  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run 
5. Reboot the server.

Now logon to your published application or desktop in Citrix and try to open the MSG attachments. This worked for me perfectly.

If you ever try to customize the SCOM alerts, you will come across what the number for Severity Critical or Warning.  Here the information that might help you.

Severity

Critical    -    2
Warning    -    1
Information   - 0

Priority

High    -    2
Medium    -    1

When you want to receive emails with new domain name (Or additional domain name) on your Exchange 2003 platform you usually create a new recipient policy (see link here: Configuring Exchange to receive mail for multiple domains). I did that and mails were bounced from Internet with 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for .. error message. Telnetting from Internet gets the same error message after “RCPT TO:UserX@NewDomain.com” command.

Here the kicker. Sending mails internally with new domain name (UserX@newDomain.com) worked beautifully.  Mail coming from Internet were not working.  After some research, I found IIS Meta data on the Exchange mail gateway or front end server weren’t updated with new domain name for strange reason.

To check this happened to you or not, follow the steps below.

1. Download IIS 6 resource kit tool here: iis60rkt.exe
2. Install this on the Exchange Front-end or Mail gateway server where you receive mails from Internet. Choose Custom install and select only Metabase Explorer version 1.6.
3. After the installation, click ''Start''->''All Programs''->''IIS Resources''->''Metabase Explorer''->''Metabase Explorer''
4. In the Metabase Explorer, Select “LM” and Expand the tree. Right-click ''LM'' and select ''Export to file''. Export the key to a mbk file for backup purpose.
5. Navigate to LM\SmtpSvc\1\Domain\. For a normal Exchange server, you should see the second domain name under this key. If you don't have, you need to manually add one key for the second domain.
   • Right-click the key of primary SMTP domain, choose ''Copy''.
   • Then, right-click ''Domain'' and choose ''Paste''.
   • In the key already exists box, select ''Copy to a new key'' and input the second domain name in the box. Click ''OK'' and then you will see a new key with the second SMTP domain name.
6. Close Metabase Explorer. Click ''Start''->''Run''->Input ''IISReset''  and press Enter.

Hope this helps you. if it is, leave me a comment here.

How many times you get this error message when you try to delete or move a folder or file?

OR you may get one of the following error messages depending on the OS flavors.

• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• There has been a sharing violation.
• The source or destination file may be in use.
• The file is in use by another program or user.
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

No worries. There is a freeware program that can unlock the folder or file, so you can move on with your life other un-important things.

Head over to Unlocker

Time to time we have a situation to troubleshoot a server which is not RDP enabled. Damn those sys admins who don’t follow the server build standard within the company.

There are ways to edit the registry remotely to enable the RDP feature.  I came across the free tool which does the job without fuss. Try it yourself at here: RDP Enable Utility

Like you I get the message and stumbled at the P2V process. The error message means the installed P2V agent on the source computer is not compatible with new P2V program. Hint: Did you update your ESX server recently?

Solution: Simply uninstall the P2V agent from source computer and try the P2V process again.

When you get a request to add a printer or any device for DHCP reservation with MAC address, it’s a hassle to find the hosting DHCP servers and have add it on both servers. If you read this you already know how to do it with DHCP MMC console.

To make this process easy, I wrote a batch files for different DHCP server (sets/scopes) and add the reservation in one single step using NETSH command.

I created one batch file for each DHCP servers set which shares the scopes. Without further due, here is my batch file.

REM
REM DHCPReserve.bat
REM Usage: DHCPReserve <Scope> <IP Address> <MAC address> <Description>
REM <Scope> is like 192.168.10.0
REM <IP Address> is assigned IP address for the device, eg., 192.168.10.15
REM <MAC Address> is the device’s MAC address without dash or spaces e.g., 0013FA0191C2
REM <Description> is anything you like about the device
REM
netsh dhcp server <Server1.domain.com> scope %1  add reservedip %2 %3 %4
netsh dhcp server <Server2.domain.com> scope %1  add reservedip %2 %3 %4

Copy and paste the above script in notepad and save it as DHCPReserve.bat. Run it with proper parameters as in remarks section in teh script.

I had an user complaining she can’t copy or move or delete files on a windows share where she had a full access. When I asked her what’s the error message she gets. She said it’s “Access Denied”.

I knew what was going on. I resolved it with the following steps.

Solution 1:

• Open Command Prompt
• Type “Net Use”
• If you see the share already listed with or without a drive name, delete the share with the following command
  • Share without a drive letter: Net Use \\servername\sharename /delete
  • Share with a drive letter (network drive): Net Use Drive: /delete
• Try open the share now

If the above solution doesn’t work, follow the next solution.

Solution 2:

for XP machines:

• Open Control Panel and Open “User Accounts”

• Click Advanced –> Manage Passwords. Delete any entry if you see related to your Windows Share.

If you use Vista, follow this.

• Click Orb and type “User account” and select “User Accounts” from the search results
• Click the link on the left side of the window that says “Manage your network passwords”

• Then as you predicted, delete the password entry of the problematic windows share.

Hope I helped some on your quest of resolving this issue.

Ever since I did my first certificate for MCSE in Windows NT 4.0, I always updated my certification position. I upgraded my MCSE in Windows 2000 to  MCSE in Windows 2003 to MCSE in windows 2008.

First thing I tested with Windows 7 Beta is to copy a huge file from a USB drive to a network location. Something Vista doesn’t do well. What do you know Windows 7 copied the file really faster, I am impressed.

Robocopy is fantastic freeware from Microsoft. But I hit the limitation of this tool today. I wanted to copy a huge pile of files into monthly sorted folders.

Robocopy has –MAXAGE:N and –MINAGE:N options for file selection. N is a days or date in YYYYMMDD format. Well, it works with only  with one switch MAXAGE or MINAGE, but not both at same time. Then how the hell do I select a particular month files.

I started using XXCopy and it worked for me with the following switches: /DA#N and /DB#N. You can download XXCopy for personal use here: More information check the XXCopy help files.

What the hell? SCOM console on the SCOM management server was crashing. Event log has the following very descriptive cryptic error log.

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    .NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    5000
Date:        12/23/2008
Time:        9:33:02 AM
User:        N/A
Computer:    MySCOMServer
Description:
EventType clr20r3, P1 microsoft.mom.ui.console.exe, P2 6.0.4900.0, P3 47b71095, P4 mscorlib, P5 2.0.0.0, P6 4333ab80, P7 edf, P8 7, P9 n3ctrye2kn3c34sgl4zqyrbfte4m13nb, P10 NIL.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 63 00 6c 00 72 00 32 00   c.l.r.2.
0008: 30 00 72 00 33 00 2c 00   0.r.3.,.
0010: 20 00 6d 00 69 00 63 00    .m.i.c.
0018: 72 00 6f 00 73 00 6f 00   r.o.s.o.
0020: 66 00 74 00 2e 00 6d 00   f.t...m.
0028: 6f 00 6d 00 2e 00 75 00   o.m...u.
0030: 69 00 2e 00 63 00 6f 00   i...c.o.
0038: 6e 00 73 00 6f 00 6c 00   n.s.o.l.
0040: 65 00 2e 00 65 00 78 00   e...e.x.
0048: 65 00 2c 00 20 00 36 00   e.,. .6.
0050: 2e 00 30 00 2e 00 34 00   ..0...4.
0058: 39 00 30 00 30 00 2e 00   9.0.0...
0060: 30 00 2c 00 20 00 34 00   0.,. .4.
0068: 37 00 62 00 37 00 31 00   7.b.7.1.
0070: 30 00 39 00 35 00 2c 00   0.9.5.,.
0078: 20 00 6d 00 73 00 63 00    .m.s.c.
0080: 6f 00 72 00 6c 00 69 00   o.r.l.i.
0088: 62 00 2c 00 20 00 32 00   b.,. .2.
0090: 2e 00 30 00 2e 00 30 00   ..0...0.
0098: 2e 00 30 00 2c 00 20 00   ..0.,. .
00a0: 34 00 33 00 33 00 33 00   4.3.3.3.
00a8: 61 00 62 00 38 00 30 00   a.b.8.0.
00b0: 2c 00 20 00 65 00 64 00   ,. .e.d.
00b8: 66 00 2c 00 20 00 37 00   f.,. .7.
00c0: 2c 00 20 00 6e 00 33 00   ,. .n.3.
00c8: 63 00 74 00 72 00 79 00   c.t.r.y.
00d0: 65 00 32 00 6b 00 6e 00   e.2.k.n.
00d8: 33 00 63 00 33 00 34 00   3.c.3.4.
00e0: 73 00 67 00 6c 00 34 00   s.g.l.4.
00e8: 7a 00 71 00 79 00 72 00   z.q.y.r.
00f0: 62 00 66 00 74 00 65 00   b.f.t.e.
00f8: 34 00 6d 00 31 00 33 00   4.m.1.3.
0100: 6e 00 62 00 20 00 4e 00   n.b. .N.
0108: 49 00 4c 00 0d 00 0a 00   I.L.....

Well, I fixed it. But I am not sure that’s the right solution.  It may work for you.

1. Right click on Operations console short cut in program files menu and select properties.
2. Select “Shoutcut” tab and click on Advanced button
3. UNCHECK the check box for Run with different credentials

One of these wonderful days, I came across a need to map a network drive before I run a script. It’s a hassle to manually create the network drive mapping every time. This is because I was using different credentials to map the network drive.

Then I put my mask, and yelled “This is the job for…scripting man!!!”.

Here is my VBScript to map the network drive with different credentials without user interaction. Hope it is useful for somebody else. Make sure you type the correct server URL, drive letter and credentials in this script before you run.

'*******************************************************************************
' Script Name: MapNetwork.vbs
' Purpose: Map network drive with different credentials
' Usage: Change the values for SDrive, sNetworkLocation, sUser, sPassword
'        variables and run the script. Script returns nothing, but it will
'        map the network drive to the specified drive letter.
'
' Author: Anand Venkatachalapathy
' http://anandpv.spaces.live.com
'********************************************************************************

Dim oNetwork
Dim sDrive, sNetworkLocation, sUser, sPassword

sDrive = "W:"
sNetworkLocation = "\\MyServer\Data"
sUser = "MyDomain\MyUserName"
sPassword = "MyPassword"

Set oNetwork = CreateObject("wscript.network")

oNetwork.MapNetworkDrive sDrive,sNetworkLocation,False,sUser,sPassword

Set oNetwork = Nothing

'******************* End of Script *************

I had following error message keep showing up in SCOM console as error. I keep checking my SCOM server is enabled for “Agent Proxying” (SCOM Console –> Administration –> Agent Managed Computers, right click on the computer and select properties, check the check box in Security tab). But the error message wasn’t going away.

After some research, I came across http://blogs.msdn.com/mariussutara/archive/2007/11/09/agent-proxying-alert.aspx and it resolved my issue.

As specified in the above blog, run the query and check the Path column. It should be a server name. Enable “Agent Proxying” for the Path mentioned server. Good Luck.